One of the highlights in my yearly show
calendaris to visit the COM World Show,not only in
my capacity as COM-UK secretary but also as a bird fancier, and this
year has not been an exception. I usually travel for the weekend
with my close friend Ron Pearce and on occasions with my wife Janice
and other close friends Grant & Maggie Findlay from Scotland.

Prior to setting off for Zwolle,
Holland, I had a phone call from our President Richard Lumley to
inform me that the presentation on the London Canary Fancy by Huw
Evans had the first approval for recognition of the variety and this
means that the same approval needs to be obtained for the next two
years before COM recognises the variety as a breed and includes it
in the show classification. This indeed was good news to start the
trip to Holland; crossing from Harwich to Hook of Holland then a two
hour drive to Zwolle.

Entrance to the Show
Hall

I was very pleased to see, once again,
many of our British fanciers as coach loads from the north and west
country descended in early January to attend the 67thWorld Show organised by the Dutch Federation (COM-Holland) on
behalf of the legislative World organisation Confederation
Ornithologique Mondiale (COM) which was formed in 1952.

COM structure has two executive
committees each consisting of seven members; the COM Board of
Directors and the judges’ committee called the Ordre Mondial Des
Juges OMJ. Each committee has its own president, vice president,
secretary and members of the board. The affiliated countries are
divided into two groups; A & B depending on the size of their show
team at the World Show and the number of OMJ judges that they have.
Our country is sadly in the B group.

Every year there are some elections to
both executive committees at their individual congresses (Annual
General Meetings) and this year was no exception. At the COM
Congress on Saturday morning both Iran and Mexico were welcomed as
new members to COM making it 50 countries strong.

There were two positions on the COM
committee that were contested; the President and Vice President and
on both occasions there was a ballot for the nominated official from
each member country to use to cast that country’s vote. At the
Congress on Saturday morning there were 43 countries present, the
highest ever in attendance. The current President Carlos Ramôa
(Portugal) beat Antonio Sposito (Italy) by 32:10 votes. For the Vice
President’s position the three candidates were the current Vice
President Slobodan Kulic (Serbia), Alberto Rubens (Israel) and
Albert Zomer (Holland). Mr. Rubens was eliminated in the first
ballot and the eventual winner was Mr. Zomer with 25:16 votes. Both
the President of the OMJ Roberto Rossi (Italy) and the COM Treasurer
Christian Lamée (France) were re-elected unopposed.

Dino Pocecco, Carlos
Ramoa & Ghalib Al-Nasser

The Saturday evening was the Gala Dinner
and the flag & medal presentation with over 500 fanciers and
partners attending the evening. This is unique to COM as fanciers
attending from each country are called to the stage to be presented
with their national flag while their national anthem is being
played. This year we had 13 British fanciers and wives attending and
all the men went up to the stage to sing God Save the Queen
while our national anthem was playing. It is always so wonderful to
be part of the family of nations sitting together and enjoying each
other’s company.

The Queen - Our
National Anthem

British Fanciers at
the Gala Dinner

One needs to pay tribute to the
conveyors from those countries benching birds as they take 2 weeks
of their time to drive their country’s teams to the show venue and
then spend every day stewarding by feeding and watering a section of
the show birds allocated to them and do all the necessary stewarding
jobs. It is a thankless task but they do it for the love of the
hobby and we should be extremely grateful to them for carrying out
this task on our behalf.

Our conveyors this year were Richard
Lumley, our COM-UK president, together with the Irish conveyor Peter
Sherlock who took our northern team on Wednesday 2nd
January crossing from Hull to Hook of Holland then driving to the
show hall while Gary Mann took the team from the south crossing from
Dover then driving all the way to Zwolle and back to Bournemouth,
Dorset in the same day. On behalf of COM-UK and all the exhibitors
we would like to say a big THANK YOU to both Richard and Gary
for their excellent effort in carrying out this thankless task. Also
we must not forget the dedication of Willie McKay who travelled all
the way from Whitburn, Scotland to
take his 8 birds to Richard in Norton, North Yorkshire and back in
the same day and donating all the biscuits for the COM-UK stand at
the show. This is dedication to be commended indeed.

The Show Hall

Judging commenced on the Sunday and
finished Monday. As always our conveyors do a great job in taking
the teams and bringing them back safely with more medals than in
previous years. Our sincere thanks and gratitude are extended to
them for a grand job well done. Our stand was the centre point of
gathering for all the British fanciers who attended the show. At the
stand we made a special presentation to Kevin McCallum with his 10
years OMJ Silver Judging Badge and the same will be made to Brian
Hogg who, unfortunately, was not well enough to attend the show.

Kevin McCallum with his 10 Years Judges
Badge

The show attracted a total entry of
24,863 birds from 3,342 exhibitors representing 23 countries. COM-UK
had an entry of 202 birds from 39 exhibitors and came home with 19
medals, not our best by any means, with 7 golds, 5 silvers and 7
bronze medals. It was still a great achievement for our team and
hope that we can better it in the future if British fanciers give us
their support and backing.

This year’s show had 122 judges
invited from 16 countries from Europe, North Africa and South
America but missed out on supplying a judge from COM-UK as it is not
our turn to do so. The show operates on 2 year owner bred breeder
classes with one status of exhibitor for most varieties but for the
canary section it is only 1 year rung birds that can be shown.

Trade Stands

Fanciers always question the length of
time the birds are away from their premises and in show cages,
however despite the length of time the birds are away (usually 2
weeks from the time they leave the exhibitors’ home till their
return) they are well looked after by being fed and watered daily
during their presence at the show and always come back healthy and
eager to breed. But it is all about the atmosphere at the show and
the camaraderie between the fanciers who are attending from all over
the world and the friendship is next to none. Each country is
supplied with its own stand to decorate as it wishes and it is the
focal point for those fanciers from that country to meet.

British Fanciers at
the COM-UK Stand with
Albert Zomer (centre) COM Vice President

I was surprised and pleased to meet Jay
Bunker from Edmonton, Canada at the show. I met Jay for the first
time a few years ago when I judged the Canadian National. This was
Jay’s first visit to the World Show and he said that everyone talks
about the World Show so he decided to visit it and was overwhelmed
to see so many birds, people and noise in the show hall and is so
very easy to go bird blind after a while. He was very interested in
meeting people who are chasing rainbows and ribbons.

Jay Bunker & Ghalib
Al-Nasser

I was pleased that Roy Aplin joined me
on this occasion to exhibit budgerigars from the UK and the
budgerigar entry was only 292 with a further 602 Colour Budgerigars.
Of course I (unfortunately COM do not accept partnerships at shows)
was very pleased to learn on arrival to the show that my team of 6
birds had won 2 gold medals in the yellowface class and the opaline
cobalt colour budgerigar class and a silver medal in the cinnamon
grey class. My yellow-wing and whitewing missed out on medals as
they won their classes but only gained 89 & 88 points. I was even
more pleased to learn that Roy also won a gold medal for the
cinnamon grey green class so we were quite happy with our results.

Gold Medal Winners
Roy Aplin & Ghalib Al-Nasser

Roy was very pleased with his gold medal
which he won for the same colour back at the 2015 show. This was Roy
& Lucy’s first ever visit to the World Show and what a fabulous show
he felt it to be. The budgerigars were of quality but not in number
and this was his 4th time showing since 2011. He felt
that more Brits should support this show as every show is a
challenge.

Willie McKay attends the show nearly
every year and exhibits every year. He said that the birds are
getting better every year he visits and on this occasion he entered
8 birds in the Fife Canary Fancy but sadly he missed out on a gold
on this occasion with the highest he achieved being 91 points. He
recalled his pleasure at the 2003 show in Amiens, France when he won
gold in the Fife section and a silver and bronze in the stam section
while Ernesto Gracia won the other 3 medals so it was a clean sweep
for G.B. that year. In those days there were only 2 sets of medals
in comparison to today’s 10 sets (5 for single & 5 for stam).

The Show Hall

Our President, Richard Lumley, felt that
the show was better organised and the journey from Hull to the Hook
was good and no extra help was needed. He had praise for the
organising committee for the Gala Evening with a good dinner and
entertainment as well as the hotel and the services.

Both Richard and the Irish conveyor,
Peter Sherlock, should have been presented with their 10 years’
conveyor badges at the Gala Evening but, due to an error, these will
now be presented to them in Portugal next year.

Gary Mann, our second conveyor, took
half the team from the south and it took him 8 hours and 500 miles
each way and was back home the same day; what dedication indeed!
Gary did the job for the first time in 2011 when the show was held
in Tours, France. He had praise for the organising committee and
felt the show was very good and well organised and all the
information readily available and also on line. He felt that the
Gala Evening was excellent and was good to meet old friends and make
new ones. He said that it is not only about the birds but also about
the social side of the hobby as well.

Chris Driver who won gold at the 2017
show repeated his success again at this show with gold of 93 points
with an intense yellow ivory white wing hen. This was his first
visit to the World Show and he enjoyed it very much with plenty of
room in the show hall and very nice and friendly people to meet.

Chris Driver

Other winners were:

Exhibitor

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Total

Ghalib Al-Nasser

2

1

3

Roy
Aplin

1

1

Stan
Bolton

1

1

Graham Bradbrook

1

1

Stephen Cowling

1

1

2

Christopher Driver

1

1

Darren Hadley

2

2

John
Harris

1

1

2

Jason Hodges

1

1

Simon Meredith

1

1

Adrian Short

1

1

Donald Skinner-Reid

1

1

Stacey Turner

1

1

Peter Westbrook

1

1

Total

7

5

7

19

Graham Bradbrook

The medals are like the Olympics where
the winner gets the gold, the second gets the silver and the third
gets the bronze. The show is judged on the points system and the
bird must achieve over 90 points to be eligible for winning a medal.
For example if the bird wins 95 points (the highest points a bird
can achieve) then it will win the gold, the second can get 94 or 93
or 92 points so it will win the silver and the third can get 91 or
90 points so it will win the bronze.

Unfortunately we can
never host a World Show in the U.K. because we are controlled by
government law of the 72 hour maximum rule that birds are allowed to
be in cages.

Our congratulations are extended to all
exhibitors from the UK for participating at this unique event and
those who attended this event are already planning their trip to
next year’s World Show in Matosinhos, Portugal from 24th
to 26th January 2020 so my appeal is for more exhibitors
and more birds for next year’s event please. For more information
and photos about the show visit
www.comuk.co.uk

The World Show January 2019

The 67th COM World Show will be held
in Zwolle, Holland and will be open to the public from
10th-13th January 2019.

This event attracts a
large entry and in 2018 the entry was 32,061 from
4,002 exhibitors representing 28 countries. Apart from the large number of birds on display
there are many sales stands for fanciers to buy an array of goods as well
as birds.

The UK entry is taken by
experienced conveyors who transport the U.K. team of birds to and from the
show. Entries have to sent to the COM-UK Show Co-ordinator Simon Tammam (396
Ashley Road, Poole, Dorset BH14 0AA. Tel: 01202 730221 Email:
comuk.worldshowcoordinator@aol.com).
Birds are well looked after while away at the show; being watered and fed
twice daily. Please contact Ghalib Al-Nasser (ghalib.alnasser@gmail.com)
or Simon Tamman for any further information.

Click on the following links for Variety Schedules and
Entry Form for the 2019 Show.